I've said it before and I'll say it again. Proof of stake coins have always been ignored and underrated. In the early years when there were ones like Navcoin, GRC, Pink, PIVX, and the like. There were no validators or delegators, and earning a passive income was as easy as owning some coins and keeping the wallet open.
In the present day the structure of staking coins has changed dramatically, and they've become way more centralized. That doesn't mean there aren't some good ones on the market because there are and I think once people start looking to get what amounts to a dividend on the crypto they hold, i.e. passive income, that whole sector is going to explode.
Cosmos anyone? Polkadot? Tezos? Take a good look at what they're trading at right now and tell me now isn't the right time to buy.
I don't think so. There are a good number of POS coins out there and I think they are being talk often other than one POW coin which was Bitcoin. A lot of people do staking but there are just people who prefer mining. They also think that POW coins are more decentralized, which is why they like it more than the POS.
Anyway, staking or proof of stake coins are not a new thing so I think this wasn't the thing that the OP is looking for. I think the next crypto craze will focus on the AI because lately I am seeing a good number of threads like this in the forum. This all is of course because of that Chatgpt which said to help solves real world problems. Well let see about that.